Asemic writing

Asemic writing is an open semantic form of writing. The word asemic means “having no semantic content”.

Illegible, invented, or primal scripts (cave paintings, doodles, children’s drawings, etc.) are all influences upon asemic writing. But instead of being thought of as mimicry of preliterate expression, asemic writing can be considered as a postliterate style of writing that uses all forms of creativity for inspiration.

Some asemic writing has pictograms or ideograms, which suggest a meaning through their shape. Other forms are shapeless and exist as pure conception within the garden of imagination and experience.

Asemic writing has no verbal sense, though it may have clear textual sense. Through its formatting and structure, asemic writing may suggest a type of document and, thereby, suggest a meaning. The form of art is still writing, often calligraphic in form, and either depends on a reader’s sense and knowledge of writing systems for it to make sense, or can be understood through aesthetic intuition.

Asemic writing can also be seen as a relative perception, whereby unknown languages and forgotten scripts provide templates and platforms for new modes of expression.

See also

• Everything's Eventual
• Voynich manuscript

Books

• Michael Jacobson, The Giant's Fence. Barbarian Interior Books, 2006. ISBN:1-4116-6208-3 [1]
• Tim Gaze, Writing. xPress(ed), 2004. ISBN: 951-9198-86-5

External links

• Asemic magazine
• Avance - Experimental Texts